Janice Pariat

Boats on Land

Pariat's debut collection of short stories are set in and around Shillong and the tea estates that she grew up in. Boats on Land: A Collection Of Short Stories was released in September 2012 under Vintage Books imprint. It won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for the English language in 2013, making her the first writer from Meghalaya to win an award from the institution.

Seahorse

This was Pariat's first novel which retells the Greek myth of Poseidon and his devotee Pelops but set in Old Delhi.

Everything the Light Touches

Pariat's ambitious novel, Everything the Light Touches was released in India in October 2022 by Fourth Estate, HarperCollins. It was released almost a year later in the UK under The Borough Press imprint, and Italian translation by Salani Editore. Smitha Verma reflects that the book can be best described with its midway quote "Sometimes a place is more than just a place. It becomes a thing that shines like a beacon, where all your dreams and aspirations are fulfilled."

The idea for the book emerged in 2014, and writing it was a challenge due to its expanse. In their endorsements, the publishers noted that the book is "extraordinarily bold and ambitious" and "makes you think anew about the world around you." Frontline in their review wrote, the "broad, expansive work... is richly served by the author's luminous prose.... [it] defies easy categorisation.... delivers gifts that are not easy to explain but stays with you for a long time." The review draws several parallels to the Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass. The Open magazine's review of the book draws parallel to Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature. They write that the novel captures a sense of emotional displacement that some experience with "incredible and affecting accuracy." The Guardian called the novel, "atmospheric and accomplished." The Indian Express called it a "deeply therapeutic novel". Hindustan Times review writes that Pariat's narrative skills shine through in the little details that elevate it while being wonderful even at the broad strokes. Vogue India calls the novel "a celebration of curiosity through the ages" with gentle language and elegant prose piercing through "the deepest places of the heart." The Telegraph (India) called the novel "the very best of eco fiction" with its various characters woven together into "an interconnected and a symbiotic forest of ideas." The New Indian Express praised the historical detailing combined with research to layer several genres such as history, taxonomy, prose, and poetry into the ambitious novel.

The New Yorker listed the book in the 'also recommended' section of their Best Books of 2022. In 2023 the novel won the Sushila Devi Award in the best fiction category and AutHer Award for Best Fiction.

Fiction

• Everything the Light Touches, HarperCollins, 2022. ISBN 0063210045
• The Nine-Chambered Heart, HarperCollins India, New Delhi, 2017. ISBN 978-93-5277-379-4
• Seahorse: A novel, Random House India, New Delhi, 2014. ISBN 978-8-184-00668-1
• Boats on Land: A collection of short stories, Random House India, New Delhi, 2012. ISBN 978-8-184-00074-0

Poetry

• The Yellow Nib Modern English Poetry by Indians (Sudeep Sen ed.), Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen's University Belfast, 2011 .
• Kavi Kala: The Visual Poetry Project (Madness Manali ed.), Cinnamon Teal Print and Publishing, Goa, 2010. ISBN 978-93-80151-79-3

Anthology

• We Come From Mist: Writings from Meghalaya, Zubaan, New Delhi, 2023. ISBN 978-9-390-51426-7